Dementia and Delirium: Diagnosis, Misdiagnosis and what WE NEED TO KNOW

Course overview

As health care providers, we are often called upon to differentiate between dementia and delirium. The significant challenge we face, however, is that dementia and delirium both present with strikingly similar changes in memory, reasoning and personality. Given that delirium is typically reversible (whereas dementia is chronic and progressive), and that approximately 30 percent of our residents with a diagnosis of dementia may be incorrectly diagnosed, it is essential that we learn to accurately differentiate between dementia and delirium.